Add an Interactive Side to Your Resume

Seth Godin raised some eyebrows when he took a stand against the use of traditional resumes in a recent blog post :

"I think if you're remarkable, amazing or just plain spectacular, you probably shouldn't have a resume at all...
How about three extraordinary letters of recommendation from people the employer knows or respects?
Or a sophisticated project they can see or touch?
Or a reputation that precedes you?
Or a blog that is so compelling and insightful that they have no choice but to follow up?"

Here's my take—if you're looking for a job right out of college, it can sometimes be pretty tough to get by the HR barrier without a resume. But why not have both a paper resume and these other things? Why not use your paper resume as a launching pad to an interactive space that shows the real you—all that stuff that you could never cram onto a one-page sheet of paper?
The very first line on your resume—before you list that great internship or the amazing study abroad program you took part in—should be your personal URL. If you don't have any sort of personal site or blog, go to name cheap right now and buy your name (it costs less than $10). Or show your future employer that you have an opinion on your industry by starting a free blog with WordPress or Blogger .
This is your chance to show what you're really about. Ask a previous employer or professor if they will write a recommendation for you on LinkedIn , and link to this from your site. And if you're going into a creative career, you've probably compiled more than a few projects that you could display in an online portfolio.
If you lack the technical know-how to create a website from scratch, there are programs that make it easier for you to get started (and if you're still in school, you can probably access these for free) from Dream Weaver and Adobe GoLive to Apple's iWeb . Of course, if you're willing to take the time to learn a bit of code, the possibilities are limitless.
Another option is to create what Christopher Penn has dubbed the Social Media Resume , a more interactive resume that let's employers get to know you on a deeper level.
Someday, having a personal website will be as natural for graduating college students as having a phone number. But for now, if you take advantage of this opportunity, you're ahead of the crowd—which means you stand out. It worked for me anyway.